Daphne Neville and Rudi the Otter appeared in five episodes of ‘Come Dine With Me’, broadcast at on Chanel 4 in 2018 and repeated in the first week of September 2019.
By the end of the first episode #comedinewithme was trending on Twitter:
Daphne is what is great about Britain..cute polite nice classy positive welcoming….’
‘Daphne is lovely
The only reason I tuned into watch #comedinewithme this week was to watch the delightful and lovable Daphne Neville she is the perfect dinner guest, she’s welcome round mine anytime otter too lol aww she’s just lovely.
‘I’m watching how cute is that old lady Daphne!! Ahhh’
‘Yes and we love Daphne too!!
I could not love Daphne anymore than if she was my own Nan!’
‘Aww I do love Daphne!!
‘We are only tuning in to watch daphne
‘Aww isn’t Daphne just the best!!
‘I love Daphne on #comedinewithme
‘Daphne the perfect dinner guest
I totally want to adopt Daphne!!
Oh I LOVE Daphne, I’d score her night a 10 even if the food was crap!
Daphne opened Episode 5, being ‘first off’, with a can of tomatoes.
Daphne was interviewed in her kitchen and we met the guests as they came downstairs.
Every detail had been carefully planned. The wine was chilled, the table looked lovely and there was almost constant laughter. Viewers seemed to be engaged: ‘Go daphne!!
Daphne prepared tomato and mushroom soup for her four guests, followed by wild salmon, only to find out that two of the guests disliked fish, which was a bit of a pity.
Viewers on Twitter were appalled: ‘So James wouldn’t eat Daphne’s main cause he doesn’t like fish but his starter is lobster?
One of the guests, who was a stickler for good manners, became irritated by another member of the party and walked out before pudding, which was quite dramatic.
She rather blew her own words out of the water although Daphne said Anne later wrote to apologise.
There was a roar from viewers on Twitter:
‘OMG how rude is Anne?! Lecturing the others on manners and then walking out on Daphne?! Bitch!’
Suddenly there was one less. Daphne’s fans on Twitter were in uproar:
Poor Daphne, completely bemused!!
Daphne kept going and the evening became increasingly enjoyable, especially when Rudi the Otter was brought down to meet everyone.
In the end, Daphne was awarded 28 points by her four dinner guests
The Twitter-atary added their opinion:
‘Everyone needs to protect and look after Daphne, that woman is a legend!!
‘If Daphne doesn’t win I’m going to kill someone
‘Anyone see the water sossig on #comedinewithme ? (accompnaied with GIF of an ottter)
‘Daphne is our winner
Can we have Daphne on every week please!
You can watch this week’s episode on Channel 4 catch-up here
‘Absolutely love on . . . What a legend! I want to meet her and her otter 
You can! Daphne and Rudi the Otter will be appearing at the Frampton Country Fair in South Gloucestershire on Saturday 8th September 2019. All welcome! You can read about the antics of Daphne and her tame otters in ‘Funnily Enough’ by Sophie Neville available online or to order at your local library.
